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[Illustration: A NÜ-CHÊN TARTAR
(_14th Century_)]
CHINA AND THE MANCHUS
by
HERBERT A. GILES, M.A., LL.D.
Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge,
and Sometime H.B.M. Consul at Ningpo
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE NÜ-CHÊNS AND KITANS 1
II. THE FALL OF THE MINGS 14
III. SHUN CHIH 28
IV. K'ANG HSI 40
V. YUNG CHÊNG AND CH'IEN LUNG 52
VI. CHIA CH'ING 61
VII. TAO KUANG 69
VIII. HSIEN FÊNG 81
IX. T'UNG CHIH 98
X. KUANG HSÜ 106
XI. HSÜAN T'UNG 121
XII. SUN YAT-SEN 129
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED 141
INDEX 142
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
A NÜ-CHÊN TARTAR (14_th Century_) _Frontispiece_
A KITAN TARTAR (14_th Century_) _facing page_ 2
SKETCH MAP OF THE FAR EAST _at end_
NOTE
It is impossible to give here a complete key to the pronunciation
of Chinese words. For those who wish to pronounce with approximate
correctness the proper names in this volume, the following may be a
rough guide:--
a as in alms.
ê as u in fun.
i as ie in thief.
o as aw in saw.
u as oo in soon.
ü as u in French, or ü in German.
[)u] as e in her.
ai as aye (yes).
ao as ow in cow.
ei as ey in prey.
ow as o (not as ow in cow).
ch as ch in church.
chih as chu in church.
hs as sh (hsiu = sheeoo).
j as in French.
ua and uo as wa and wo.
The insertion of a rough breathing ' calls for a strong aspirate.
CHAPTER I
THE NÜ-CHÊNS AND KITANS
The Manchus are descended from a branch of certain wild Tungusic
nomads, who were known in the ninth century as the Nü-chêns, a name
which has been said to mean "west of the sea." The cradle of their
race lay at the base of the Ever-White Mountains, due north of Korea,
and was fertilised by the head waters of the Yalu River.
In an illustrated Chinese work of the fourteenth century, of which
the Cambridge University Library possesses the only known copy, we
read that they reached this spot, originally the home of the Su-shên
tribe, as fugitives from Korea; further, that careless of death and
prizing valour only, they carried naked knives about their persons,
never parting from them by day or night, and that they were as
"poisonous" as wolves or tigers. They also tattooed their faces, and
at marriage their mouths. By the close of the ninth century the
Nü-chêns had become subject to the neighbouring Kitans, then under
the rule of the vigorous Kitan chieftain, Opaochi, who, in 907,
proclaimed himself Emperor of an independent kingdom with the
dynastic title of Liao, said to mean "iron," and who at once entered
upon that long course of aggression against China and encroachment
upon her territory which was to result in the practical division of
the empire between the two powers, with the Yellow River as boundary,
K'ai-fêng as the Chinese capital, and Peking, now for the first time
raised to the status of a metropolis, as the Kitan capital. Hitherto,
the Kitans had recognised China as their suzerain; they are first
mentioned in Chinese history in A.D. 468, when they sent ambassadors
to court, with tribute.
Turning now to China, the famous House of Sung, the early years of
which were so full of promise of national prosperity, and which is
deservedly associated with one of the two most brilliant periods in
Chinese literature, was founded in 960. Korea was then forced, in
order to protect herself from the encroachments of China, to accept
the hated supremacy of the Kitans; but being promptly called upon to
surrender large tracts of territory, she suddenly entered into an
alliance with the Nü-chêns, who were also ready to revolt, and who
sent an army to the assistance of their new friends. The Nü-chên and
Korean armies, acting in concert, inflicted a severe defeat on the
Kitans, and from this victory may be dated the beginning of the
Nü-chên power. China had indeed already sent an embassy to the
Nü-chêns, suggesting an alliance and also a combination with Korea,
by which means the aggression of the Kitans might easily be checked;
but during the eleventh century Korea became alienated from the
Nü-chêns, and even went so far as to advise China to join with the
Kitans in crushing the Nü-chêns. China, no doubt, would have been
glad to get rid of both of these troublesome neighbours, especially
the Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from the empire,
and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of the province
of Chihli.
[Illustration: A KITAN TARTAR
(_14th Century_)]
For a long period China weakly allowed herself to be blackmailed by
the Kitans, who, in return for a large money subsidy and valuable
supplies of silk, forwarded a quite insignificant amount of local
produce, which was called "tribute" by the Chinese court.
Early in the twelfth century, the Kitan monarch paid a visit to the
Sungari River, for the purpose of fishing, and was duly received by
the chiefs of the Nü-chên tribes in that district. On this occasion
the Kitan Emperor, who had taken perhaps more liquor than was good
for him, ordered the younger men of the company to get up and dance
before him. This command was ignored by the son of one of the chiefs,
named Akutêng (sometimes, but wrongly, written _Akuta_), and it was
suggested to the Emperor that he should devise means for putting out
of the way so uncompromising a spirit. No notice, however, was taken
of the affair at the moment; and that night Akutêng, with a band of
followers, disappeared from the scene. Making his way eastward,
across the Sungari, he started a movement which may be said to have
culminated five hundred years later in the conquest of China by the
Manchus. In 1114 he began to act on the offensive, and succeeded in
inflicting a severe defeat on the Kitans. By 1115 he had so far
advanced towards the foundation of an independent kingdom that he
actually assumed the title of Emperor. Thus was presented the rare
spectacle of three contemporary rulers, each of whom claimed a title
which, according to the Chinese theory, could only belong to one. The
style he chose for his dynasty was Chin (also read _Kin_), which
means "gold," and which some say was intended to mark a superiority
over Liao (= iron), that of the Kitans, on the ground that gold is
not, like iron, a prey to rust. Others, however, trace the origin of
the term to the fact that gold was found in the Nü-chên territory.
A small point which has given rise to some confusion, may fitly be
mentioned here. The tribe of Tartars hitherto spoken of as Nü-chêns,
and henceforth known in history as the "Golden Dynasty," in 1035
changed the word _chên_ for _chih_, and were called Nü-chih Tartars.
They did this because at that date the word _chên_ was part of the
personal name of the reigning Kitan Emperor, and therefore taboo. The
necessity for such change would of course cease with their
emancipation from Kitan rule, and the old name would be revived; it
will accordingly be continued in the following pages.
The victories of Akutêng over the Kitans were most welcome to the
Chinese Emperor, who saw his late oppressors humbled to the dust by
the victorious Nü-chêns; and in 1120 a treaty of alliance was signed
by the two powers against the common enemy. The upshot of this move
was that the Kitans were severely defeated in all directions, and
their chief cities fell into the hands of the Nü-chêns, who finally
succeeded, in 1122, in taking Peking by assault, the Kitan Emperor
having already sought safety in flight. When, however, the time came
for an equitable settlement of territory between China and the
victorious Nü-chêns, the Chinese Emperor discovered that the
Nü-chêns, inasmuch as they had done most of the fighting, were
determined to have the lion's share of the reward; in fact, the yoke
imposed by the latter proved if anything more burdensome than that of
the dreaded Kitans. More territory was taken by the Nü-chêns, and
even larger levies of money were exacted, while the same old farce of
worthless tribute was carried on as before.
In 1123, Akutêng died, and was canonised as the first Emperor of the
Chin, or Golden Dynasty. He was succeeded by a brother; and two years
later, the last Emperor of the Kitans was captured and relegated to
private life, thus bringing the dynasty to an end.
The new Emperor of the Nü-chêns spent the rest of his life in one
long struggle with China. In 1126, the Sung capital, the modern
K'ai-fêng Fu in Honan, was twice besieged: on the first occasion for
thirty-three days, when a heavy ransom was exacted and some territory
was ceded; on the second occasion for forty days, when it fell, and
was given up to pillage. In 1127, the feeble Chinese Emperor was
seized and carried off, and by 1129 the whole of China north of the
Yang-tsze was in the hands of the Nü-chêns. The younger brother of
the banished Emperor was proclaimed by the Chinese at Nanking, and
managed to set up what is known as the southern Sung dynasty; but the
Nü-chêns gave him no rest, driving him first out of Nanking, and then
out of Hangchow, where he had once more established a capital.
Ultimately, there was peace of a more or less permanent character,
chiefly due to the genius of a notable Chinese general of the day;
and the Nü-chêns had to accept the Yang-tsze as the dividing line
between the two powers.
The next seventy years were freely marked by raids, first of one side
and then of the other; but by the close of the twelfth century the
Mongols were pressing the Nü-chêns from the north, and the southern
Sungs were seizing the opportunity to attack their old enemies from
the south. Finally, in 1234, the independence of the Golden Dynasty
of Nü-chêns was extinguished by Ogotai, third son of the great
Genghis Khan, with the aid of the southern Sungs, who were themselves
in turn wiped out by Kublai Khan, the first Mongol Emperor to rule
over a united China.
The name of this wandering people, whose territory covers such a huge
space on the map, has been variously derived from (1) _moengel_,
celestial, (2) _mong_, brave, and (3) _munku_, silver, the last
mentioned being favoured by some because of its relation to the iron
and golden dynasties of the Kitans and Nü-chêns respectively.
Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon
the next act of the Manchu drama. The Nü-chêns had been scotched, but
not killed, by their Mongol conquerors, who, one hundred and
thirty-four years later (1368), were themselves driven out of China,
a pure native dynasty being re-established under the style of Ming,
"Bright." During the ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were
scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busily occupied in other
directions. Their warlike spirit, however, found scope and
nourishment in the expeditions organised against Japan and Tan-lo, or
Quelpart, as named by the Dutch, a large island to the south of the
Korean peninsula; while on the other hand the various tribes
scattered over a portion of the territory known to Europeans as
Manchuria, availed themselves of long immunity from attack by the
Chinese to advance in civilization and prosperity. It may be noted
here that "Manchuria" is unknown to the Chinese or to the Manchus
themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensive home
of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces,
namely, (1) Shêngking, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, (2) Kirin, and (3)
Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar.
Among the numerous small independent communities above mentioned,
which traced their ancestry to the Nü-chêns of old, one of the
smallest, the members of which inhabited a tract of territory due
east of what is now the city of Mukden, and were shortly to call
themselves Manchus,--the origin of the name is not known,--produced,
in 1559, a young hero who altered the course of Chinese history to
such an extent that for nearly three hundred years his descendants
sat on the throne of China, and ruled over what was for a great
portion of the time the largest empire on earth. Nurhachu, the real
founder of the Manchu power, was born in 1559, from a virile stock,
and was soon recognised to be an extraordinary child. We need not
linger over his dragon face, his phoenix eye, or even over his large,
drooping ears, which have always been associated by the Chinese with
intellectual ability. He first came into prominence in 1583, when, at
twenty-four years of age, he took up arms, at the head of only one
hundred and thirty men, in connection with the treacherous murder by
a rival chieftain of his father and grandfather, who had ruled over a
petty principality of almost infinitesimal extent; and he finally
succeeded three years later in securing from the Chinese, who had
been arrayed against him, not only the surrender of the murderer, but
also a sum of money and some robes of honour. He was further
successful in negotiating a treaty, under the terms of which Manchu
furs could be exchanged at certain points for such Chinese
commodities as cotton, sugar, and grain.
In 1587, Nurhachu built a walled city, and established an
administration in his tiny principality, the even-handed justice and
purity of which soon attracted a large number of settlers, and before
very long he had succeeded in amalgamating five Manchu States under
his personal rule. Extension of territory by annexation after
victories over neighbouring States followed as a matter of course,
the result being that his growing power came to be regarded with
suspicion, and even dread. At length, a joint attempt on the part of
seven States, aided by two Mongol chieftains, was made to crush him;
but, although numerical superiority was overpoweringly against him,
he managed to turn the enemy's attack into a rout, killed four
thousand men, and captured three thousand horses, besides other
booty. Following up this victory by further annexations, he now began
to present a bold front to the Chinese, declaring himself
independent, and refusing any longer to pay tribute. In 1603, he
built himself a new capital, Hingking, which he placed not very far
east of the modern Mukden, and there he received envoys from the
Mongolian chieftains, sent to congratulate him on his triumph.
At this period the Manchus, whose spoken words were polysyllabic, and
not monosyllabic like Chinese, had no written language beyond certain
rude attempts at alphabetic writing, formed from Chinese characters,
and found to be of little practical value. The necessity for
something more convenient soon appealed to the prescient and active
mind of Nurhachu; accordingly, in 1599, he gave orders to two learned
scholars to prepare a suitable script for his rapidly increasing
subjects. This they accomplished by basing the new script upon
Mongol, which had been invented in 1269, by Baschpa, or 'Phagspa, a
Tibetan lama, acting under the direction of Kublai Khan. Baschpa had
based his script upon the written language of the Ouigours, who were
descendants of the Hsiung-nu, or Huns. The Ouigours, known by that
name since the year 629, were once the ruling race in the regions
which now form the khanates of Khiva and Bokhara, and had been the
first of the tribes of Central Asia to have a script of their own.
This they formed from the Estrangelo Syriac of the Nestorians, who
appeared in China in the early part of the seventh century. The
Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descended from
Syriac; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongol to the
parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts,
evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though,
unlike Chinese, they are read from left to right. Thirty-three years
later various improvements were introduced, leaving the Manchu script
precisely as we find it at the present day.
In 1613, Nurhachu had gathered about him an army of some forty
thousand men; and by a series of raids in various directions, he
further gradually succeeded in extending considerably the boundaries
of his kingdom. There now remained but one large and important State,
towards the annexation of which he directed all his efforts. After
elaborate preparations which extended over more than two years, at
the beginning of which (1616) the term Manchu (etymology unknown) was
definitively adopted as a national title, Nurhachu, in 1618, drew up
a list of grievances against the Chinese, under which he declared
that his people had been and were still suffering, and solemnly
committed it to the flames,--a recognised method of communication
with the spirits of heaven and earth. This document consisted of
seven clauses, and was addressed to the Emperor of China; it was, in
fact, a declaration of war. The Chinese, who were fast becoming aware
that a dangerous enemy had arisen, and that their own territory would
be the next to be threatened, at length decided to oppose any further
progress on the part of Nurhachu; and with this view dispatched an
army of two hundred thousand men against him. These troops, many of
whom were physically unfit, were divided on arrival at Mukden into
four bodies, each with some separate aim, the achievement of which
was to conduce to the speedy disruption of Nurhachu's power. The
issue of this move was certainly not expected on either side. In a
word, Nurhachu defeated his Chinese antagonists in detail, finally
inflicting such a crushing blow that he was left completely master of
the situation, and before very long had realised the chief object of
his ambition, namely, the reunion under one rule of those states into
which the Golden Dynasty had been broken up when it collapsed before
the Mongols in 1234.